Spring 2015 Check-in

Fittingly, I think this season marks progress – but via baby steps.
As always, Spring is a critical lynchpin for any anime year. It’s the busiest season of the year, and in good years it tends to be the best. That wasn’t true in 2014, and given the nature of the three seasons that followed, we were desperately in need of a revival.

Basically, I think Fall and Winter were bad seasons saved by a couple of standout series – stuff like Akatsuki no Yona and Death Parade. One or two really good shows a season is better than none, but from a historical perspective it’s pretty lackluster – especially when you stack a couple seasons like that back-to-back. What we haven’t had in a very long time is a season that offers both quality and quantity – not just elite shows, but several of them – and a bunch of good ones besides.

So where does Spring 2015 fit? It’s sure as hell no Spring 2012 or Spring (or Fall) 2007, but I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that we’re not going to see their like again in the foreseeable future. If you heard the last podcast I did with Samu-kun (aye), you know we both agree it’s better to have a few really elite shows at the top than no great series but a bunch of pretty good ones. It’s great to have both, but it’s the great shows that stay with you – and that really define a season. Early on I think we both felt that this season might be trending that way, but I’m starting to see it settle into something closer to a balance – I don’t see a lot of year-end Top 5 candidates here, but there are a decent number of series that have established themselves as very watchable.

As usual, the tentpole series have risen to the top – shows like Baby Steps, Arslan, and Ore Monogatari! have generally held up their end of the bargain. Happily there have been series that have substantially outperformed expectations – stuff like Kekkai Sensen and Punchline – though Plastic Memories has been a real disappointment. And there are several series that I was close to dropping as a viewer that have raised their game enough in Weeks 3 and 4 to keep me invested for now.

Sometimes we struggle to see a theme or themes for a season, but this is a case where in my little corner of the schedule (out past the LN circle route, where the buses rarely run) there’s an obvious one. Gainax nostalgia has never been more in vogue, though it’s never really gone away. Last season we saw Rolling Girls and Yoru no Yatterman try and fail to bottle the Gainax mojo, but this schedule is positively packed with aspirants (and not the one actually by Gainax), some of them with real potential. Some strongly feature Gainax expats (the most overt, Punchline, has a Gainax director and animation director) while some are clearly the product of fans.

On, then, to Spring 2015:

The Elite

Baby Steps Season 2
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: A
Comments: The thing with Baby Steps is that, like its hero, it just never stops getting better. Especially in the hands of Studio Pierrot – and not “lavish” Pierrot like Yona, either – Baby Steps is a masterpiece of substance over flash. But it does seem to be reaching a bigger audience at last, the manga continues to show strong sales, and the season has been outstanding so far (even the production values are a bit better). We’re barely getting started on one of the most amazing character journeys in manga history, and for however long the anime is going to follow along I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.

Outstanding

Ore Monogatari!
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: A-
Comments: Along with Isshuukan Friends, this is the second overtly sweet romance series I’ve liked in the last year. This is the better show on the whole, and it’s less dramatic than One Week Friends while perhaps not having quite as much of an edge. The thing is that this show is naturally sweetened so it doesn’t come off as saccharine – it comes from the characters being genuinely decent and likeable. The romance side of the story is certainly fine, and I like Takeo and Rinko – but it’s Takeo’s bromance with best pal Suna that’s the most interesting relationship in the series, and it actually seems to be aware of that. Suna is the most interesting character too, a bro’s bro who keeps his own feelings close to the vest. The only off note here is the recurring disaster plotlines that crop up at convenient moments – I hope there’s a reason for them. The biggest question with Ore Monogatari! then is just what sort of show it’s going to be from here on out, but I like spending time with these people so I’m pretty much good with whatever.

Arslan Senki
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: A-
Comments: Arslan Senki has been just about what I expected it to be, and so has the reaction. Those who disdain Arakawa Hiromu’s manga have found stuff to dislike, and most of the rest of the audience has been very pleased. The visuals aren’t spectacular but they’re plenty good enough, I think the casting and music (except the OP) are excellent, and it’s clear from the first frame that this is a big and compelling story with a lot to offer. If you like big, sweeping epic anime – especially of a historical nature – you really have no excuse not to be follow Arslan, because shows like this come along pretty rarely these days. We’re only getting 25 eps for now, seemingly sticking with the manga rather than Tanaka Yoshiki’s novels, but the manga volumes are all charting again and TV ratings (for a show airing in the early evening on the weekend, they matter) are excellent – so there’s a good chance we’ll get more anime down the line.

Kekkai Sensen
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: A-
Comments: Put together the brilliant director Matsumoto Rie, uneven but fiercely creative mangaka Nightow, Studio Bones and the best soundtrack of the season and you get Blood Blockade Battlefront – without a doubt cooler than the other side of the pillow. In terms of aesthetics this is easily the standout of the season – the visuals are spectacular and relentlessly creative, and that music… Sometimes jazzy (to match the Baccano! like narrative style), sometimes rocking, sometimes something vaguely Middle Eastern, and the best ED of the season (the OP is solid too). As with Matsumoto’s Kyousougiga there’s a definite hint of the old Gainax style here, but Kekkai Sensen is carving it’s own unique artistic niche. The story is still a bit of a muddle (a Nightow trademark) but growing more interesting every week, with brilliant inventions like Prosfair and a potentially interesting vampire plotline. And the characters are classics in the way they were in great turn-of-the-century shows like Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop – larger than life, iconic, hilarious.

Very Good

Punchline
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B
Comments: Along with Kekkai Sensen, this series has definitely been the most pleasant surprise of the season for me (as usual, should’ve listened to totoum). I make no no bones (no pun intended) about the fact that being a fan of classic Gainax (think FLCL and Abenobashi) really helps here, as this is the Spring show that most openly parrots the Gainax style. But Punchlinegets Gainax, so it works – it’s suitably madcap but there’s a point to it, and there are strong hints that the plot and characters are going to prove much more substantial than you’d guess from the premiere. Plus, this show is just flat-out funny – probably the 3-4 biggest laughs of the season for me have come from this spring (though I am worried that this aspect seems to be on the decline). The biggest missing piece for me right now is some characterization for the protagonist, Yuuta – that was always well-established by this stage of any of the great or even good Gainax series – but hopefully that’s part of the development writer Uchikoushi Kotarou has promised will hit around the midway point of the series.

Worthwhile

Kyoukai no Rinne
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B
Comments: This series has been another pleasant surprise, which is in itself a surprise as I would have guessed this series was the least likely candidate to do that. No doubt about it, the anime is better than the manga – and while Brain’s Base is doing a fine job, I think the biggest factor really is that Rumiko’s uber-deadpan style of comedy here is more effective on-screen than the page. Rinne is definitely a throwback to a lighter, pre-Inuyasha Rumiko, and it’s nice to have a comedy like that grace our screens again.Diamond no Ace Second Season
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: Honestly there’s not a whole lot to go on here, as the first three episodes of the season were almost entirely recaps – presumably due to the sequel decision coming down rather late. It seems likely the budding discord between Kataoka and Ochiai is going to be a major theme this season, especially with Ochiai seemingly on-track for a full-on villain role.Owari no Seraph
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: Owari no Seraph’s premiere was one of the best of the season – a near-masterpiece of painted backgrounds and gothic horror. Since then the show has reverted much closer to author Kagam Takaya’s usual LN-stlye form, with a detour to high school taking things into very formulaic territory. It’s well-executed formula, though, and there’s still enough in the overall premise to keep me interested, but the series is going to have to leave this stifling environment behind pretty soon or I may just lose interest.

Shokugeki no Souma
Episodes Watched: 5
Grade: B-
Comments: Food Wars is as full of tropes as any shounen out there, but it generally twists them hard enough to make you wonder if this is meant as a satire. I think J.C. Staff has (as usual) come up with a very faithful adaptation, one that captures both what I like and dislike about the manga. The food porn is excellent, the recipes really work (so I’m told) and the feeling in Polaris Dormitory is the essence of seishun. But I’m not sure there’s enough here for a two-cour (for now) blogging commitment.

Sidnoia no Kishi: Daikyuu Wakusei Seneki
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B-
Comments: To be honest I don’t see a whole lot that’s different with this season of Sidonia, apart from the plot itself. Some are saying the CGI is better, but I don’t really see it, and of course the writing is still good at what it’s good at and bad at what it’s bad at. I like the intellectual sci-fi elements, I like Izana, and I like the big set pieces – and while the rest of it isn’t nearly so good, that’s enough to keep me following Sidonia.

Hibike! Euphonium
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: I’d call Hibike! Euphonium progress for Kyoto Animation, as it’s pretty restrained with the pandering and seemingly exacting with the details of life in a high school band. The hard-edged teacher Taki-sensei is excellent in every respect, but the show’s dealings with the rest of the cast are incredibly shallow and superficial. Maybe this is meant as a reflection of main character Kumiko’s own rather passive view of the world, nut it makes Sound Euphonium rather less engaging as a series than it otherwise might be.

Still Watching

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works Season 2
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: C+
Comments: Damn, this series frustrates me. Shows where the gap is so wide between the elite episodes and the disasters are rare, and you can pretty much always tell what you’re going to get based on which characters are on-screen. Urobuchi Gen certainly has his flaws as a writer, but his touch is sorely missed here – he was really the only one who wrote Fate specifically for anime rather than merely trying to transfer the VN from one medium to another.

Mikagura Gakuen Kumiyoku
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: C+
Comments: After Punchline, Mikagura School Suite is probably the series most overtly trying to catch Gainax in a bottle this season. It worked pretty well for one episode but I’ve been losing interest consistently ever since. The hook here – the club battles, the female version of the horny male lead – is a pretty thin reed, really. And while the show does a decent job of capturing a sliver of the tone they’re going for, the execution is really pretty ordinary on the whole.

Houkago no Pleiades
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: C+
Comments: Ironically, the Gainax show isn’t one of the ones that feels like it’s trying to be a Gainax show. Still, after a very lackluster premiere Houkago no Pleiades has actually improved quite a bit. It’s still nothing remotely exceptional, but has become a pretty credible take on the mahou shoujo formula, with some interesting cinematography that’s managed to create a pleasantly dreamlike vibe over the last couple of episodes.

Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: C+
Comments: The first thing that must be said is that this series is certainly better than the OVA (which is true of Pleiades too, as it happens). Mind you that’s a pretty low bar in this case, but Yamada-kun is a modestly funny situation comedy that makes a pleasing distraction. It powers through the material without taking much time to reflect on it, but even so it strikes me odd than none of the kids involved in the body-switching scheme seems remotely interested in why it’s happening. I guess this is just the sort of show where logic or indeed any higher brain function doesn’t play much of a role.

Plastic Memories
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: C
Comments: Easily the biggest disappointment of the season for me. I love the premise of Plastic Memories (even if it is very derivative of the likes of Mahoromatic and Chobits, among many others), but the writing and execution is thoroughly pedestrian. The biggest single problem for me is that for a show that’s not funny this one tries to be funny way too often, but the melodrama also tends to be heavy-handed and manipulative – a very bad combination of extremes. Episode 3 was the nadir, and #4 was better – but Plastic Memories has dug itself a pretty big hole to climb out of.

The nature of the season means there are an above-average number of legit bubble series at the moment. I would put all of Owani no Seraph, Kyoukai no Rinne, Shokugeki no Souma, and Hibike! Euphonium in that category – plus my “still watching” count is higher than normal and could yield a late riser. Here’s my take on the schedule as of right now:

8 WORLD TRIGGER / Just continues to be steady!9 Ore Monogatari!! / My Love Story /See Above10 Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon? / See Above 11 Shokugeki no Souma / Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma / See Above12 Triage X / This show just rocks13 Show By Rock!! / Has moved up a lot! 14 The Labyrinth of Grisaia / The Eden of Grisaia CR Combined Both !/ A big surprise 15 Kekkai Sensen / Blood Blockade FUNIMATION A very good anime but hard to follow / See Above 16 Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works 2nd Season / see above

admin

Eugene Tan

So you didn't pick up Oregairu Zoku? For shame. It's not perfect but its very very good and keeps a consistent level of quality from week to week.

Glad to see Kekkai Sensen get a high rating. It looks like it has potential to be a remarkable anime and even now it is the most entertaining anime of the season. It's pretty rare to see an anime that has love clearly poured into every aspect of its construction.

Seems I should pick up Arslan Senki since people are liking it in a number of sites I frequent This season as a whole is pretty mediocre though.

John Hunt

Kind of can't help but agree about Fate/Stay Night and how you can tell what kind of episode or scene you're in for given what character is on screen. Any scene focused on Shiro or Saber is generally pretty good and thematically interesting, any scene focused on Rin is generally going to result in either a little bit of action or comic relief and any scene with Gilgamesh, Shinji or Kotomine I kind of just want to hit the fast forward button. The other characters and servants kind of just fall where they may with Lancer and Assassin being kind of interesting but also having a tendency to disappear for weeks at a time and feeling like they could be explored a whole lot more. Other than that I just kind of find that the servants tend to be more interesting characters than their masters but that a lot of the cast feels just kind of throwaway. They come in, have a few scenes and say and do their cool lines and philosophies and then usually get one or two more scenes and then they're usually killed off and removed from the story giving it sort of an uneven sense of development and pacing at times. I think this all probably works better if you've just read the original visual novel and supplementary material and were really into the whole Fate thing based on those and can just fill in the blanks. It just doesn't seem like it's generating as much new interest in the Fate franchise as it's predecessor did somehow and is being made strictly with pleasing fans of the original in mind as opposed to making a show that anybody can watch and get into with ease.

c

currycurry

I don't see it on this list, but I think you mentioned somewhere you were watching Sushi and Beyond? I thought it was available only through cable on NHK and NHK World, but apparently Viewster has it too.

admin

elianthos80

Yay I'll take it dubbed as long as I can follow the dialogues :,). Thanks @currycurry

Btw… currently 1) catching up with Baby Steps s2 #3+ . 2) Then Sushi goodness thanks to the above link. Hooray. 3) I'll wait until the Ore Monogatari anime cover the unscanlated parts as I find it a bit slow on screen. The comedic timing feels snappier on paper to me and there are a lot of gags and comedy moments in the story, so… :,). 4) Keeping Arslan – and GoT – for watching at a later time. I'm finding hard to focus on epics lately (!). Ditto on Kekkai Sensen. Not the right period now.

P.S./EDIT: the verification system now requires me to identify wine out of a bunch of pictures? Eeeeenzooooh ;ppp *toasts*

admin

elianthos80

Have I been living a lie all this time O_o ? Until yesterday on my end here there used to be the captcha ID verification after the 'please prove you are not a robot' bit, today instead there are pictures. Of wine – of all things – . And after my above edit with related repeat verification there were pictures of coffee to select instead – of all things part II – . What's next, pick the right pizza pics? beer? cigars? baseball tools? neko? karuta? Let me try commenting again now this is getting baffling and intriguing at once :p.

EDIT: close enough guess to the above. The pics of the moment to select to prove my non-roboticness are… not neko but niku. All hail steak images and food porn!

leongsh

Arslan Senki– Sucker for Tanaka-sensei's epics. Ginga Eiyu Densetsu is my #1 anime show. Was curious with Arakawa's manga adaptation and haven't gotten round to reading it. Thus, interested in following this anime adaptation of her manga adaptation. Very happy so far.

Kekkai Sensen– My expectations were fairly high for this show. The promos looked great. Worried whether it was too much style and not enough substance. So far, it met my expectations. I hope it doesn't go pear-shaped.

Ore Monogatari!!– Was curious about this show. Was expecting them to drag out the pairing of Takeo and Yamato like the usual shows but they secured it by Episode 3. Exceeded my low expectations. Continuing to see where this show takes us.

Shokugeki no Souma– It's food porn. I'm in. It's a fun show. It's not for analysing except on whether some of the dishes are doable and tasty. The nudity doesn't bother me, even Isshiki's exhibitionism. I think it's probably his way of throwing people off to hide his serious side.

Continuing series / sequels

Ace of Diamond: Second Season– This is going all the way to the end of part 1.

Baby Steps 2– Happy to continue with this.

Gintamaﾟ– The madness returns. I just outed myself. =P

Kuroko No Basuke 3– Last leg coming up.

Sidonia no Kishi: Dai-kyuu Wakusei Sen-eki– Enjoyed the first season. Curious to see where it goes. Happy to see the path it is taken.

On the backburner to watch later Ghost in the Shell Arise: Alternative Architecture.

May come back to watch later:

Kyoukai no RINNE– Except for Maison Ikkoku, I find that Rumiko Takahashi's works tend to start promising, start to build up nicely and then end up in an endless loop. Will wait for the feedback on the show after it builds up steam to see whether it will actually be heading somewhere or end up in another endless loop. The track record says the latter.

Punchline– Mixed feelings. Will probably watch as a batch and catch-up.

Seraph of the End– Annoyed with the main character, Yu, but interested in the other main character, Mika. Will wait and see from reactions of the audience as to whether it is interesting enough to watch later.

Dropped the rest.

G

Geebun

One show that is between an hidden gem and a guilty pleasure for me this season is Show by Rock. Sure it's cute girls doing cute things most of the time but IMO it is done pretty well. Most of the songs, mostly Han Megumi's band song from episode 4, are pretty good and catchy. The weird CG actually grew on me and I find it to be pretty cute, you can count on bone to have stylish visuals. Also, I'm actually curious about the monster stuff that is going on and about how they are going to solve the main character situation without someone being sad in the end.

Not saying it's a masterpiece in any way but so far it's actually been pretty adorable and fun.

E

Earthling Zing

I'm mostly watching the shows on this list above the C grade, but its a bit of a disappointment I think that none of the non-sequels have really set themselves ahead of the pack. I don't find it very likely that any of the sleepers will have big improvements to come, but several great series have the potential to improve, although stuff like Ore Monogatari I find myself liking less every week.

Biggest surprise for me so far is really Kekkai Sensen, I've rewatched several of its episodes once and when I do that I somehow get even more impressed by how insanely creative it is, always something new to spot the second time around.

Truman

Hmm I'm hoping that the last episode of Ore Monogatari was an outlier because I've liked all the other episodes a lot thus far, really glad they didn't draw out the to main leads getting together when it was obvious they like each other. If the series goes on to show the ups and downs of young love it has the potential to be a truly unique (realistic) and great series.

T

Truman

Off topic but just thought I should let you know Guardian, really like your blogging and find you have really similar taste to myself. I pretty much wait for your opinion on a show and start watching it, if it gets the all clear from yourself haha. By any chance have you seen Now and Then, Here and There?

admin

Well, the first thing you need to understand is that few fans are more skeptical than ReBoot fans. Few have been teased and then burned as much as we have. So if is a big if, but IF the reboot happens, I will certainly watch it and at least comment on it here. But it must be said I'm not terribly enthused based on what I've heard from Rainmaker about their plans for it.

admin

There are similarities among all Adach works, but they do vary in pathos. I don't personally consider Rough among his top tier. Others do. I would say there's a general consensus that Touch and Cross Game are his best shounen works, and I would read one of those before making a decision if Adachi is for you. Cross Game is the more contemporary of the two (and shorter), and might be a good starting point.

Incidentally, the "Mix" post would have been a perfect place to post that comment.